


With Me, The Present Is Forever

by queenofourhearts



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-14
Updated: 2015-07-14
Packaged: 2018-04-09 07:38:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4339712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenofourhearts/pseuds/queenofourhearts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Regina has lost all hope for a happy ending, and Emma wants to help her get it back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	With Me, The Present Is Forever

**Author's Note:**

> Title by Sylvia Plath, from 'The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath'. I really like finding my titles in lyrics or poetry (after I've finished my fics) so please bear with me:)
> 
> A big thank you to all readers!

Regina paced nervously back and forth through the living room at 108 Mifflin Street, her face stuck in a frown as she worried her bottom lip between her teeth.

 

“Jeez Regina, you’re going to wear out the hardwood at this rate. Just sit down.”

 

The brunette stopped in her tracks to glare at the blonde reclining on the couch. 

 

“What if this backfires? I know we’re the most powerful when combining our magic, but what if something goes wrong? What if I end up somewhere else, and the reversal spell doesn’t work? What then? Did you even think of that?”

 

“Hey now, this was your idea. I’m just here to help,” Emma defended. “Besides, do you really think that if something happened, we wouldn’t do everything in our power to get you back?”

 

The brunette relaxed a little at those words and went to sit beside her nemesis-turned-friend. She sighed and placed her head in her hands.

 

“Maybe this is a bad idea after all. This kind of magic can be very unreliable, maybe it’s not worth the risk.”

 

Emma sighed at the defeated tone of the brunette’s voice and placed a steady hand on her shoulder for comfort.

 

“Look Regina, this is important to you. Like you said, we are extremely powerful together and I’m pretty sure you regaining hope for a happy ending is worth any danger.”

 

The words warmed the brunette’s heart, but she couldn’t help but scoff “Easy for you to say, it’s not you who’ll put yourself in harms way if things backfire.”

 

“That’s true,” Emma nodded. “But I will lose my friend if this thing blows up in our faces, and I don’t want that.” She shot a reassuring smile at the former queen, who now seemed so small and unsure, not at all like the regal mayor she used to be. They needed to do something to bring back the hope she’d lost when she found out that Forest Face had knocked up her sister. How fucking disturbing was that? No wonder she didn’t believe she could have a happy ending anymore. That’s why this time traveling spell had to work.

 

Emma stood, extending a hand to Regina. “Let’s get this over with.” The brunette took the hand on offer and got up. She then led the way up to her bedroom, where they had decided it would be best casting the spell. The research had shown that after casting the spell, Regina’s body would go into a sort of sleep state, so she would be in bed for the duration of the spell and Emma would be watching over her. This made her feel somewhat safe, even though her nerves were still very much present.

 

Sitting down on the edge of the bed, Regina took a deep breath. “We’re really doing this,” she said, as if the reality of it all had just sunk in.

 

“Yes we are,” came the simple answer from the blond standing in front of her. “Now lie down. Do you have the pendant for reversing the spell?”

 

Regina’s hands instantly landed on the small pendant hanging on a chain from her neck. “Yes, I have it. Do you remember what you need to do if something seems to be wrong?”

 

“Yeah, we’ve been over it a hundred times, I’ve got it. I’m here for you Regina.”

 

The brunette smiled through her nerves. That was something she had had to learn to trust, and so far it had always been true. Emma had always been there for her. With that thought running through her mind, letting it soothe her worries, Regina lay down, making herself comfortable. Neither of them knew how long this spell was going to last, but they had decided that they might as well make sure that the brunette didn’t wake up with lumbago or something equally painful afterwards.

 

“I’m ready,” Regina said. “Let’s do it. And in case anything goes wrong, I want to thank you for helping me. You’ve been a true friend.”

 

“Who would’ve known huh?” Emma smirked as she sat down on the side of the bed. 

 

The brunette and the blonde held hands and shared a reassuring squeeze as they started chanting the spell that would hopefully give Regina back her hope for a happy ending. After the third time of repeating the spell, Emma felt Regina’s hand go limp, so she placed it on the older woman’s stomach and heard her breathing grow heavy. It was just as if she was sleeping.

 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Regina however, never registered her body relaxing as she was swept away into what seemed to be a vortex of red and white, feeling as if she was sucked forward like a wisp of smoke in a storm. 

 

All of a sudden everything went black, and she felt grounded again. She could hear her heart beat faintly, as well as feel the air filling her lungs and was suddenly afraid that the spell hadn’t worked at all and that as soon as she opened her eyes she would be met with green counterparts. This, however, was not the case.

 

When she opened her eyes, she was in fact lying in her bed, but there was no blonde in sight. Oh, and she was also sort of… see-through. Like freaking Casper the friendly ghost. Luckily the pendant was still hanging in its chain though.

 

She carefully tried to poke her own stomach and found that to her own touch, she was still very much solid. She sat up and looked around. It was her bedroom all right, but not the same room she’d just been in with Emma. The bed was the same, but she didn’t recognize the sheets, although they were very nice and something she would definitely buy. A bigger one had replaced the small dresser on the other side of the room and there was an armchair in the corner next to it that she had never seen before. It looked rather old and worn, and was definitely not something she would ever buy. Or well… there was no arguing about the chair actually standing there, in her bedroom, so maybe…

 

She startled when she heard voices floating in from somewhere else in the house, but she stalked towards the door nonetheless. So far it seemed that the spell had worked, so she needed to make the most out of every minute she was there. Wherever “there” was.

 

Regina slowly opened the door, hearing the voices much more clearly. It was a woman’s voice and a deeper, manly voice that she couldn’t quite place. The woman’s voice was familiar though, it was the voice of one Emma Swan, Sheriff and Savior.

 

As she approached the stairs she could make out parts of the conversation.

 

“Well where the hell is she? She said she’d be back like an hour ago. I don’t like this. Maybe I should just go look for her,” she heard Emma say, a hint of panic in her voice.

 

The other, deeper voice answered, exasperated. “Ma, calm down! Mom can handle herself, okay? She probably hasn’t called or texted because she’s still driving. You know how she’s always on my case about not texting and driving. Besides traffic from Boston can be pretty intense on Fridays, you know that. Just chill.”

 

Regina practically stumbled on her own feet at that. Ma? Mom? It couldn’t be… Henry? Her little prince, with a voice like – well – a man. She decided she needed to see him; she was after all here to see if future Regina was any closer to her happy ending, so she made her way downstairs, making sure to be quiet. She wasn’t sure if future Emma and Henry would be able to see her, even though she was transparent, and she didn’t want them to freak out if that was the case.

 

Treading carefully, she peaked around the corner and in to the living room, where the voices came from. Sure enough, there was the blonde, pacing much as Regina had done earlier, looking every bit herself albeit a few years older. And then there was Henry. He had been on the couch, but stood up to put a stop to the pacing and he towered a whole head higher than his blonde mother. Regina could feel the tears brimming in her eyes, tears of pride. Her son, their son, all grown up and handsome as ever, his dark hair well kept and back broad and strong. 

 

She watched how he steered Emma to the couch by putting his hands on her shoulders and making her sit down. Of course, she immediately started bouncing her leg instead, and Regina rolled her eyes, so typical Emma. She decided she would back off for a while because it felt like she was intruding somehow, so she moved further into the foyer as she pondered the panic radiating from Emma. Sure they were friends, and she was happy to see that that was still true in the future, but being this alarmed over future Regina being a bit late seemed a bit much for the usually pretty level headed blonde.

 

Suddenly the front door swung open and Regina stared at it in horror. There she was. Well, future her. Looking very much like herself, hair a bit shorter, but dressed as sharp as always, Regina was relieved when it became obvious that future Regina couldn’t see her as she stepped inside. Still she started backing up, feeling weird about this whole thing.

 

All of a sudden, Emma came rushing from the living room and literally passed through Regina, making the translucent woman gasp as it felt like an amped up chill running through her. She jumped to the side to avoid Henry moving through her as well, that feeling was just too freaky to deal with on top of everything else.

 

“Regina, where the hell have you been?!” Emma’s voice snapped her out of the whole “people are walking through me like I’m air”-situation. She saw her future self smile brightly at Emma before she stepped forward and met the blonde in a tight hug. The sight made Regina smile to herself. Emma did give amazing hugs.

 

What happened next, however, made her stumble on the first step of the staircase and fall on her see-through ass. She watched as future Regina’s hand roamed future Emma’s back for a moment, before ending up in blonde locks, while Emma’s hands landed on her future self’s hips. Her breath caught in her throat as she watched her future self and her friend kiss like it was completely normal. What. The. Hell? Even Henry seemed unfazed, even though he cleared his throat when the kiss started to become a bit too heated.

 

“Eugh, come on moms. You know I love you, but I do not need to see… that.”

 

Future Regina and future Emma just snickered and kissed again before addressing their son.

 

“We love you too Henry, but I will never stop kissing your mother. Not when we wasted so much time ignoring these feelings,” future Regina said as she walked over to give her son a hug. Future Emma wasn’t far behind, and she punched him playfully on the arm.

 

“That’s right kid, and besides, you’d think you’d be used to PDA by now. It’s been what – almost five years?”

 

“Oh please ma, like you’ve gotten used to grandma and grandpa kissing! You cringe every single time,” Henry laughed as he threw his arms around his mothers’ shoulders, ushering them towards the kitchen. “How about we get started on dinner, so you can keep your hands to yourselves for a while?” The family laughed together as they left the foyer.

 

Left sitting on the stairs was a translucent and astounded Regina. Her thoughts were running wild. She had just witnessed her future self passionately kiss Emma Swan. And they had apparently been doing it for years? Well, she figured, at least that explains that hideous chair in my…our, bedroom.

 

She was so in her own thoughts, she didn’t notice at first when the world started disappearing around her and suddenly she was back in the swirling vortex, body (or maybe just soul?) being pulled back through the spell.

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Regina had been out like a light for about 20 minutes when Emma noticed her breathing becoming shallower. She wondered weather that meant Regina was coming back or if something was wrong, but she figured the brunette wouldn’t look quite so peaceful if the spell backfired. So she repressed her budding panic and instead reached out to take the hand she had been holding when they cast the spell. She wanted Regina to feel her presence, to know she was there, the second she came to.

 

The blonde saw Regina’s eyelids start to flutter and squeezed her hand lightly.

 

“Hey there.” Chocolate orbs met hers. “Welcome back”, the Sheriff offered with a wide grin of relief. 

 

Regina stared up at Emma for a moment, the only word falling from her lips “Emma.”

 

Emma chuckled, “Yep, that’s me. Are you feeling okay? What happened?”

 

The brunette was deep in thought of how she had never noticed the depth in those green eyes before. They were intriguing, different shades of green mixed with specs of gold and caramel, even a tiny bit of azure blue. As Emma’s questions registered however, she also noticed the hand holding hers as careful as if it were made out of glass.

 

Even though she was still shocked after her discovery about her, well their, future, she was eternally grateful to Emma for making sure she woke up safe. She squeezed Emma’s hand lightly and then moved to sit up, a bit lightheaded after swirling through time.

 

“Hello, Regina? Did it work?” Emma waved her hand in front of the brunette’s slightly glazed over eyes.

 

“Oh right, Uh, y- yeah it worked.” She debated with herself on how much she should tell the blonde. To give herself a moment to think she asked for a glass of water and Emma happily went to get one.

 

While she listened to Emma make her way downstairs, Regina weighed her two options. On the one hand, she had to admit that there had always been something between her and Emma, something more than animosity and more than just friendship, and if she told Emma what she had seen, they could act on it now.

 

On the other hand, if she told the blonde, she was afraid that the possible escalation of their relationship would seem forced, like they hadn’t actually freely made the choice to be with each other.

 

Her thoughts grew louder, until she realized something. In the future, Henry had been older, but seemed to still live at home. That meant no college yet, and future Emma had said that they’d been a couple going on five years. Regina did the math; Henry must have been around 18 years old in her visit to the future, probably a senior in high school. And he had just turned 13 in the present. That would mean…

 

Emma suddenly entered the bedroom again, the glass of water in her hand and a smile still on her lips.

 

“Here you are,” she said as she handed over the glass. “I am so happy you’re back safe Regina, but I really need you to spill the beans. How was it, did it help? What did you see?” She was as excited as Pongo whenever he saw a squirrel, which was saying a lot.

 

Regina offered a smile in return as she took the glass of water, a “thanks” slipping from her lips before downing the contents in three big gulps. As she finished, she put the glass down on the bedside table and swung her legs over the edge of the bed, patting the space beside her to get Emma to sit.

 

“It went really well I think,” Regina started. “It was strange, I was completely see-through, and obviously invisible to –“ she paused. She had been close to saying “the future us”. Instead she continued “ – to people in the future, but I could still, like, touch myself.”

 

At that, she could feel Emma shaking with withheld laughter and bumped shoulders with her.

 

“Not like that you pervert,” the brunette laughed. “I just mean that to me, my body was still there you know?”

 

“Yeah, yeah, I get it. That was quite the image you painted there though Regina,” Emma smirked. 

 

“Oh you don’t even know the half of it Ms. Swan,” Regina jibed back. Both women fell quiet for a moment, the flirtatious undertones of their banter not escaping either of them.

 

Emma cleared her throat. “So what happened, who did you see? Was I there? Or Henry? How did we look?”

 

Making a split second decision that she didn’t want to spoil the possibility of a relationship born from true development rather than a sense of obligation, Regina answered carefully.

 

“Well, I didn’t really see much, but yes, Henry was there and he had gotten so big! I barely recognized his voice at first, it was so deep.” She smiled to herself at the memory of her little prince all grown up.

 

“Wow, that must’ve been weird huh? But like, how old was he? I mean how many years into the future are we talking about here? Two? Twenty?”

 

“I’d say five or six years probably. It seemed as if Henry still lived here.”

 

“Anything else?”

 

Hating to lie to the blonde, but still standing behind her initial decision, Regina shook her head. “Not really, no.”

 

The blonde studied her for a moment. Regina just hoped that Emma’s superpower wouldn’t call bullshit, or rather that Emma, no matter what she sensed, would leave it alone. 

 

“Okay. But just tell me one more thing though,” Emma said seriously and placed a hand on Regina’s knee. “Did it work?”

 

Regina tilted her head down and let a small smile play on her lips. Then she looked up at Emma and said, “It did.”

 

“So you have new hope for a happy ending?”

 

“Very much so. Thank you for pushing me to go through with this. I think I owe you a dinner!” Regina placed a hand over the blonde’s.

 

“Oh god, yes please! You know I love your cooking Regina,” Emma grinned widely. There really was nothing that compared to a home cooked dinner at the Mills' mansion. Not even Granny’s grilled cheese stood a chance.

 

“Would tonight be good? Henry’s going to the movies with your father, and I really hate eating alone.”

 

“Tonight is awesome! With just the two of us it’ll be like a fancy date or something,” Emma blurted out before she could stop herself. Regina could see the blush creeping up the blonde’s cheeks, but she just smiled as she stood and walked towards the door.

 

“Well, if that’s what you want dear… I’m sure we can make it work.”


End file.
